Bruce Breedlove
08-03-2007, 10:58 PM
Summertime is when decks see the most use and when we hear about more decks collapsing, often causing serious injuries or deaths. Decks should be inspected for proper construction and attachment and for signs of deterioration.
Remember that people do not always use decks inteligently. Young people especially tend to overload decks by cramming people onto the deck. Add a keg or two of beer (162 pounds each plus ice) and people dancing to music (additional live loads and lateral loads pulling the deck away from its connection to the house) and a deck can become overloaded and fail very quickly.
Below are a few recent news articles about deck failures that will hopefully reinforce the importance of deck inspections as part of home inspections.
Partygoers face drinking charges in deck collapse (http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070731/NEWS02/707310365/1070)
07/31/07
SHIP BOTTOM (NJ) — Police have filed various alcohol-related charges against 17 Mercer County people who were at an East Bay Terrace home when a deck collapsed last Tuesday.
At the time of the incident, 19 people were found to be at the house, including 17 underage individuals "with an extremely large quantity of beer in the home, and several people showed signs of consumed alcohol," Police Chief Paul Sharkey said.
. . .
After the collapse, which happened at approximately 9 a.m., [one partier], 19, of Hamilton was airlifted to the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City with head injuries. [He] has since been discharged from the medical center.
The second-story deck at 2005 E. Bay Terrace was fastened to the home only with nails and lacked lag bolts. The bolts would have added additional support to the deck but still might not have prevented the collapse under the weight of eight people, officials said. The home was built in the 1960s, and the deck within a decade of that. The home was grandfathered into current codes.
. . .
UPDATE
Collapsed deck wasn't up to today's standard (http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070726/NEWS/707260349/1070/NEWS02)
07/26/07
SHIP BOTTOM — A deck that collapsed at a bayside home Tuesday, injuring seven people, would not have passed code if built in recent years, said borough code officials.
The second-story deck at 2005 E. Bay Terrace was fastened to the home only with nails and lacked a lag bolt, which would have added additional support to the deck but still might not have prevented the collapse under the weight of eight people, said Susan K. DeLuca, an official with the construction and zoning office.
The home was built in the 1960s, and the deck within a decade of that, and the home was grandfathered into current codes, DeLuca said.
"Let's just say it's not construction we'd approve of now," she said.
. . .
The borough does not do maintenance checks, said DeLuca, but there have been discussions by the Borough Council about enacting a maintenance code. However, there has been no timetable set for doing so.
An inspection of the property and the deck determined that eight or nine teens standing on one side of the deck was likely too many, but any number of factors could have played into its collapse, DeLuca said.
"The deck connections pulled away, but what caused that you can't pinpoint," DeLuca said. Heavy rains on Monday could have caused the wooden deck to expand, she noted.
. . .
There have been several deck collapses in New Jersey and Pennsylvania recently, including at a seafood restaurant in Cape May County that injured nine earlier this month, and one at a home in Mountain Lakes that injured 23.
Six people were injured in July 2006, when a second-story deck on an older Point Pleasant Beach rental property detached from the house.
Remember that people do not always use decks inteligently. Young people especially tend to overload decks by cramming people onto the deck. Add a keg or two of beer (162 pounds each plus ice) and people dancing to music (additional live loads and lateral loads pulling the deck away from its connection to the house) and a deck can become overloaded and fail very quickly.
Below are a few recent news articles about deck failures that will hopefully reinforce the importance of deck inspections as part of home inspections.
Partygoers face drinking charges in deck collapse (http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070731/NEWS02/707310365/1070)
07/31/07
SHIP BOTTOM (NJ) — Police have filed various alcohol-related charges against 17 Mercer County people who were at an East Bay Terrace home when a deck collapsed last Tuesday.
At the time of the incident, 19 people were found to be at the house, including 17 underage individuals "with an extremely large quantity of beer in the home, and several people showed signs of consumed alcohol," Police Chief Paul Sharkey said.
. . .
After the collapse, which happened at approximately 9 a.m., [one partier], 19, of Hamilton was airlifted to the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City with head injuries. [He] has since been discharged from the medical center.
The second-story deck at 2005 E. Bay Terrace was fastened to the home only with nails and lacked lag bolts. The bolts would have added additional support to the deck but still might not have prevented the collapse under the weight of eight people, officials said. The home was built in the 1960s, and the deck within a decade of that. The home was grandfathered into current codes.
. . .
UPDATE
Collapsed deck wasn't up to today's standard (http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070726/NEWS/707260349/1070/NEWS02)
07/26/07
SHIP BOTTOM — A deck that collapsed at a bayside home Tuesday, injuring seven people, would not have passed code if built in recent years, said borough code officials.
The second-story deck at 2005 E. Bay Terrace was fastened to the home only with nails and lacked a lag bolt, which would have added additional support to the deck but still might not have prevented the collapse under the weight of eight people, said Susan K. DeLuca, an official with the construction and zoning office.
The home was built in the 1960s, and the deck within a decade of that, and the home was grandfathered into current codes, DeLuca said.
"Let's just say it's not construction we'd approve of now," she said.
. . .
The borough does not do maintenance checks, said DeLuca, but there have been discussions by the Borough Council about enacting a maintenance code. However, there has been no timetable set for doing so.
An inspection of the property and the deck determined that eight or nine teens standing on one side of the deck was likely too many, but any number of factors could have played into its collapse, DeLuca said.
"The deck connections pulled away, but what caused that you can't pinpoint," DeLuca said. Heavy rains on Monday could have caused the wooden deck to expand, she noted.
. . .
There have been several deck collapses in New Jersey and Pennsylvania recently, including at a seafood restaurant in Cape May County that injured nine earlier this month, and one at a home in Mountain Lakes that injured 23.
Six people were injured in July 2006, when a second-story deck on an older Point Pleasant Beach rental property detached from the house.